The Carrier

Zain has had a habit this winter of transmitting toddler-based diseases to me and Shif (and most of my family in Ohio on one occasion).  He'll cough a little for a day, then leave the adults near him debilitated for a week.  I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that he doesn't suffer or turn into a crankypants; it makes it much easier to take care of him while we sniffle and schlump along.  We're also lucky to have a number of willing babysitters nearby who can help us out.  Bapa bailed me out the other day and Zain had a fantastic time playing with him.


Zain is (too) rapidly turning into a big boy.  He seems to learn several new words every day.  Recent acquisitions include sink, chalk, Play-Doh, neighbor, and harira (a Moroccan soup, and a common baby word).  He also has a catch-all word, "deppady", that seems to mean "this thing that I don't know the name of."  He says it very confidently, like deppady is the exact name of that animal, food, machine, or piece of garbage.  He's also into demonstrating his mastery of the concept of opposites.  He has a new bathroom stool where he likes to play "up-down."  "Opie-close" with doors and baby gates has always been popular.  And he will always point out that tea or coffee is "hot hot" and will want to touch a can of pop and say "cold."  


He went through a couple weeks of "toddler boot camp" where he was grumpy, demanding, defiant, and tons of fun.  But he seems to have mellowed out since then, thankfully.  He still has streaks of defiance (for instance, if he wants our attention, he'll go stick his hand in Binda's water bowl and say "Mommy" until we notice), but he'll generally bend to our wishes. However, these are some phrases I've heard uttered in the last few days:

• Piggy doesn't go in the garbage.
• Binda is not a compost bin.
• No chalk in the potty.
• Don't eat the wire. 

Speaking of saying "Mommy", we've joked that we should get one of those little clickers so that we can count the number of times he says that word during a day.  I think it would be in the many hundreds on some days.  He likes to point out interesting objects to us ("Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy..." "What, sweetie?"  "Mommy, car.") and ask for things ("Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy..." "What, sweetie?"  "Mommy, mink [milk].") or just smile at us ("Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy..." "What, sweetie?" [Smile]).  He is a sweet, sweet boy and so fun to be around.  It's amazing to watch him learn and grow up.

Nesting Santas occupied hours of time (Grammy probably had no idea of their future use when she bought these for me a few years ago!)

Chasing down a pea

He really liked these mannequins

Displaying his "ultrasound lips" on a hike (does anyone have a copy of the giant-lips ultrasound?  we can't find the original.)

Zain and Shif duet on the trumpet

Oooops!